Although Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella hasn’t fundamentally changed Microsoft’s core business ever since taking over from Steve Ballmer, one thing we’ve noticed is that Nadella is much better at sticking subtle daggers into rivals. So where Microsoft under Ballmer used to go after Google with all the subtlety of a steroid-infused elephant with megaphones strapped to each if its tusks — remember the painfully awful “Scroogled” campaign, for instance — Nadella has been adept at coming up with clever ways to undermine Google’s domination of its own Android mobile platform.

Smartphone and tablet chargers are far from being exciting accessories, yet we have to constantly carry them with us on the off-chance that our beloved mobile device runs out of battery life when we least expect it. FlexCharger, however, is a different kind of charger for mobile devices — in fact, it’s the only charger in recent memory that we might even call exciting. More →

Smartphone battery technology simply cannot keep up with the rate at which other smartphone tech is improving. Some new components are being designed to help extend handset battery life, but it’s not easy to compensate for the newer high-resolution screens vendors are now using.

To compound matters, some of the most popular apps in the world are terrible when it comes to power efficiency, and now they have been named and shamed in a new study from AVG. More →

A new report from Strategy Analytics sheds further light on the state of the smartphone business in the fourth quarter last year, confirming once again the profound effect the iPhone 6 had on the industry. The analytics company revealed that during Q4 2014, Android only managed to capture 11% of the global smartphone profit share, a record-low for Google’s ecosystem, while Apple took home a record-high 89% of all smartphone profits. More →

Apple’s iOS App Store is an interesting place. It houses more than 1.3 million apps that combine to make up the best mobile app ecosystem on the planet. It also features what may very well be the absolute worst search technology on the planet. Finding good apps using the App Store’s in-built search function is next to impossible, which is a big part of the reason we spend so much time here at BGR sharing great iPhone apps with our readers.

Here at BGR, we cover paid iPhone and iPad apps that go on sale for free all the time. Why? It’s simple: we love sharing great deals with our readers and iOS apps go on sale all the time. Unfortunately, the same just isn’t true of Android apps. Big Android app sales are sadly few and far between, but we always try to cover them when they do come around.

And you might have guessed, a huge sale on Android apps has just popped up and it’s definitely worthy of your attention. More →

There was once a time when personal assistant services could only be enjoyed by the wealthy. Now, there are plenty of services that offer at least a portion of the personal assistant experience at a small fraction of the price of hiring a full-time person on staff. The experience isn’t quite the same, of course, but most people don’t really have a need for a real full-time assistant.

Now, when it comes to getting whatever you want delivered to you with a minimal amount of effort, a new service called Magic could be exactly what you’ve been waiting for. More →

To look at early versions of Android, when Google first began to truly embrace mobile, you would have never guessed that the company would eventually be responsible for some of the best and most beautiful apps on the planet. Today, however, apps like Gmail and Google Maps are the best and most widely used applications in their respective categories, and Google continues to wow us with its app quality each time new updates roll out or new apps are launched.

As much as you rely on the Google apps for computers, Android and iOS that you currently use, however, there are a slew of apps Google makes that you have probably never even heard of. More →

The life of a smartphone is typically very short and it seems like even the hottest Android phone will seem obsolete after only a year. With this in mind, members of Reddit’s Android community have put together a list of Android phones that have stood the test of time and are still great to use. We’ve listed the top results below by the number of up votes they received. More →

Android’s malware problem might be overstated, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be cautious when navigating the web on your device. On Wednesday, anti-virus software maker AVG reported that a newly discovered malware can continue to spy on you even after you think you’ve turned off your device. More →

Most of us can’t imagine our lives without a smartphone at this point, but there are clear downsides to being connected at all times. A commonly discussed issue is the fact that we often pay less attention to people in and around our lives because we’re so focused on the connected world. On a more sinister note, however, our phones can sometimes be used against us by malicious hackers or even government agencies, as we learned from the recent round of Snowden leaks. Beyond that, some of the most popular apps in the world “spy” on users by collecting usage data and other private data, and then using it for targeted advertising.

In case you were looking for an out-of-the-box smart projector, then Beam might be worth looking into. The unusual-looking device has just been listed on Kickstarter and it needs to raise at least $200,000 by March 24th to become a real entertainment-ready accessory. More →